Do’s:
- Involve a variety of people, including staff, participants (members of your target audience), volunteers, alumni and others in your visioning work. The participants and alumni have directly experienced the change processes that you believe in; they can give you a very good perspective on your organization’s beliefs about change.
- Use multiple methods of involvement in order to involve multiple stakeholders in your visioning. Participatory methods are especially powerful in engaging participants in discussions about change. Focus groups could help, as well as individual phone calls or an online survey sent to participants.
- Make sure to involve all genders in the discussion and address the specificities of public engagement and change for different genders. Make sure minority voices are included in the discussion.
Don’ts:
- Don’t discuss your beliefs about change only in a small closed group or with just your public engagement team. Your beliefs will become clearer as you share and discuss them with a variety of perspectives from different stakeholders. Wider stakeholder engagement also tests your internal perspective with your external target audience.
